The Invisible Man, Week 4

Welcome to the final week of the The Invisible Man discussion. 

Were you satisfied with the ending? Things didn't go the way I expected them to go. Did you predict all that would happen to Griffin in the end? 

I felt like this section was different than the first two because in this section, Griffn mostly describes all of the things that happened to him in the past, and there isn't much current action. Did you feel like that made the book move more slowly? Did you have a hard time keeping track of all of Griffin's experiences? I think the flashback storytelling technique is a little harder to follow than just regular narration. 

One part that I thought was interesting was the fact that Griffin made muddy footprints that other people could follow, even though he was invisible. I think, in my head, I kept thinking that if he were invisible, he would be transparent and have no mass. But, he obviously did have mass since he was able to keep a coat and hat on his body. Speaking of the hat and coat--what did you think of the part where he describes how he got his costume? I could not believe that he was angry at the shop owner for hearing him, and I could not believe that he tied that man up. Griffin had absolutely no remorse for any of his actions! He didn't feel bad at all. I hope the shop keeper ended up being ok. We don't hear anything more about him. Griffin seemed to have only two emotions. He was either happy or violently angry. 

I think one of the most surprising things from this section was when Griffin described the fact that when he ate food, he became visible again. He couldn't eat, even with his jacket on because he couldn't expose his invisble face, and he couldn't eat when he was fully invisible because the food that he ate would be visible to others. At least that's how I understood is predicament. I never even considered how he would eat until it was mentioned in the chapter. Were you surprised by those food facts at all? 

At the end of his conversation with Kemp, Griffin explains that he would like to enact a reign of terror and would like to go around committing just murders. I'm really not sure how he thought that would happen, and it's really surprising that he believed that Kemp would go along with him. I think Griffin was completely delusional. Once he became invisible, he completely lost all grip on reality. 

Were you surprised that Kemp had contacted someone else to alert them about Griffin? I wasn't too surprised since Kemp kept looking out the window. He was obviously looking for someone. At first, Griffin is able to get away, but he isn't able to escape completely. His death scene was pretty violent and upsetting. The image of him lying broken and bleeding on the ground, fully visible once again was pretty disturbing. I understand he was a menace, but his death seemed a little over the top. 

The book ends with Marvel admitting that he still has Griffin's notes, but he can't read them. He also wonders what life would be like for him if he were invisible. Do you think Marvel would be tempted to recreate Griffin's experiments if he were able to decipher his notes? Don't you think he should have learned from Griffin's horrible life that being invisible isn't all it's cracked up to be? 

Were you satisfied with the ending? Did you guess any of the final scenes? Are you glad you read the book? If you're on the fence about watching the new movie adaptation, check out the interview clip below. It might convince you to watch!

If you enjoyed this book and would like to read and watch similar titles, check out this list I created. Make sure to let me know if you end up checking out anything on the list!

Thanks for following along this month! Make sure to leave your thoughts in the comments! And, check back next month as we read The Book Thief. I can't wait to hear from you in the comments!